What is the modern adaptations of Henry V?

Answer 1

Shakespeare's play Henry V has been the subject of a number of film adaptations of which Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film is acknowledged by nearly everyone as the best. A more recent film by Peter Babakitis is interesting but of much poorer quality. Laurence Olivier made a film version in 1944, largely for Propaganda purposes, which is very good but has been overshadowed by Branagh's. Robert Hardy made an excellent King Henry in the 1962 television series An Age of Kings, which was adapted from Shakespeare's plays. The version of Henry V in the recent BBC series The Hollow Crown is unfortunately not very good, although the rest of the series is.

All of these use costume and design reflecting the fifteenth century when the historical King Henry lived. So, although they are adaptations, and have been made recently, they are not "modern adaptations" in the same way that Sir Ian McKellen's 1995 version of Richard III, in which the setting is modernized to the 1930's, is. A rare production which modernized the setting was the English Shakespeare Company's production starring Michael Pennington and which was released to television as a part of The Wars of the Roses, a seven-part series. Here Henry gave his "Once more into the breach" speech while waving a M-16 and standing on a sandbagged trench.